Tabari (1 passage)

1. Full Dutch translation of Tabari's text

   Allah the Exalted says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: Behold, O Muḥammad, with the eye of your heart these two groups — one of which pursues the worldly life and works for it, and the other desires the Hereafter and strives for it with conviction in Allah's reward for that striving — how We have favoured the one group above the other: that We granted this one His insight and guided him to the path that is most upright, and made easiest for him what is most leading and most rightly-guiding, while We forsook that other one and caused him to stray from the path of the Truth and blinded his sight to the way of rectitude. وَلَلآخِرَةُ أَكْبَرُ دَرَجَاتٍ (and the Hereafter is greater in ranks): that is to say, the group of those who pursue the Hereafter is, in the Hereafter, greater in ranks, some of them standing above others according to how their dwelling-places differ on the basis of their works in Paradise; and greater in favouring, through Allah's favouring of some above others of this other group in the worldly life — in what We expanded for them therein.

   In accordance with what we have said, the exegetes spoke.

   * Mention of who said that:

   Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words انْظُرْ كَيْفَ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَى بَعْضٍ (See how We have favoured some above others): "that is to say: in the worldly life." وَلَلآخِرَةُ أَكْبَرُ دَرَجَاتٍ وَأَكْبَرُ تَفْضِيلا (and the Hereafter is greater in ranks and greater in favouring): "and the believers have in Paradise dwelling-places, and they have therein favours through their works. And it has been mentioned to us that the Prophet of Allah ﷺ said: 'Between the highest dwellers of Paradise and the lowest is a rank like a star which one sees in the east and the west of the earth.'"

   Show original Arabic

   يقول تعالى ذكره لنبيه محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم: انظر يا محمد بعين قلبك إلى هذين الفريقين اللذين هم أحدهما الدار العاجلة، وإياها يطلب، ولها يعمل؛ والآخر الذي يريد الدار الآخرة، ولها يسعى موقنا بثواب الله على سعيه، كيف فضَّلنا أحد الفريقين على الآخر، بأن بصّرنا هذا رشده، وهديناه للسبيل التي هي أقوم، ويسرناه للذي هو أهدى وأرشد، وخذلنا هذا الآخر، فأضللناه عن طريق الحقّ، وأغشينا بصره عن سبيل الرشد ( وَلَلآخِرَةُ أَكْبَرُ دَرَجَاتٍ ) يقول: وفريق مريد الآخرة أكبر في الدار الآخرة درجات بعضهم على بعض لتفاوت منازلهم بأعمالهم في الجنة وأكبر تفضيلا بتفضيل الله بعضهم على بعض من هؤلاء الفريق الآخرين في الدنيا فيما بسطنا لهم فيها. وبنحو الذي قلنا في ذلك، قال أهل التأويل. * ذكر من قال ذلك: حدثنا بشر، قال: ثنا يزيد ، قال: ثنا سعيد، عن قتادة، قوله ( انْظُرْ كَيْفَ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَى بَعْضٍ ) : أي في الدنيا( وَلَلآخِرَةُ أَكْبَرُ دَرَجَاتٍ وَأَكْبَرُ تَفْضِيلا ) وإن للمؤمنين في الجنة منازل، وإن لهم فضائل بأعمالهم، وذكر لنا أن نبيّ الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: " إِنَّ بينَ أَعْلَى أَهْلِ الجَنَّةِ وأسْفَلِهِمْ دَرَجَةً كالنَّجْمِ يُرَى فِي مَشارِقِ الأرْضِ ومَغَارِبها ".